Practical applications

[iPeace]

For what practical applications have you used microscopy?

I'll start:
To see if that thing in the refrigerator has gone bad: milk, lunch meat, etc.
I have been surprised to find that many things that smell fine are, in fact, a biohazard.

To see if the stuff I fermented is bad.
I make sauerkraut. If too much air gets to it, it looks more like a culture of amoebic disentery.

I have used my B&L dissecting microscope to find and remove small slivers.

Blood counts
I found this to be very difficult. Practice would probably have helped, but I'm not that wild about stabbing myself for blood.
Gave me a lot of respect for lab techs who did counts in the days before automation.

To see if my dog has worms.
It's a crappy job, but someone has to do it.

To monitor my dog's kidneys.
Sadly, my dog has chronic kidney disease, so I have been looking at a lot of urinary sediment.

[dtsh]

I suspect removing slivers is a common use for our stereo microscopes; in addition some fairly common tasks are allowing me to see the threads on small machine screws so I can measure thread pitch/module, inspect small parts, etc.

For the compound microscope the bulk of my uses are veterinary diagnostic in nature, fecal egg counts, urinalysis, vaginal cytology, and the like. I've been learning how to do leukocyte counts, but I need more practice to be effective.

[iPeace]

Garden variety wood slivers are best served by a loupe, but there are hair-fine things that come from burdock or some other weed that cause a surprising amount of pain for their size. Barely visible with naked-eye darkfield, but pretty obvious under a disecting scope. Using tweezers under a microscope is frustrating because what feels like a tiny movement is pretty huge at a microscopic scale. Time to shop ebay for a micromanipulator : )

Are you a veterinarian, or caring for your own dog(s)?

[SuiGenerisBrewing]

Floatation tests on our goats, to check for intestinal parasites. I do a lot of brewing and yeast ranching, and use the scope for cell counts, checking for the presence of different brewing organisms, etc.

[Sure Squintsalot]

Mostly stereoscope....checking at garden stuff. Comparing mold vs insect eggs. Scale can be a tough one to distinguish from run of the mill diseases, depending on the plant type.

Setting up bonafide plankton slide for permanent mounting is another stereo application.

[Tom Jones]

Hospital labs for 40 years. Hemocytometer blood cell counts, platelet counts. Stained WBC differentials including malignant cell ID, Body fluid hemocytometer cell counts and differentials including malignant cell ID using stained slides. Blood bank to identify clumping in crossmatch or antibiody ID testing. Urinalysis, bacteriology gram stains. Mycology KOH, India ink preps, wet mounts and culture ID. Parasitology in blood, stool, skin, hair, etc. It was a rare day when I didn't use a microscope at least once. Many days it was continuous all day long.

Now it's a toy. Lots of antique prepared slides and pond water, still photos and video. Not particularly practical save for education, outreach and enjoyment.

[Hobbyst46]

Stereo microscope:
- splinters
- differentiation between ordinary garden ants and the tiny monstrous fire ants
- re-connecting fallen parts of spectacle frames, like the nose pads and earpieces; handling those tiny screws

Compound scope:
identification of lice and lice eggs around (happily, only seldom)

[PeteM]

I can add a few.

Wood shop applications:
- Assuring sharp cutting edges. We have a craftsman demo this in "Micronaut" sessions.
- Wood species ID
- Glue joint failure analysis

Metal shop applications
- Removing metal splinters
- Low power scope over lathe for tiny parts
- Reading tiny thread gauges
- Metal screen sizing (also cloth, for those who need that)
- Some methods of hardness testing
- Surface finish comparison
- Cutting edge wear analysis (a college-era R&D co-op job)
- Optical comparison and measurement. I use a stereo microscope with a cross-hair reticle and an x-y stage fitted with Mitutoyo digital readouts

Electronics
- Reading component ID's
- Soldering small components
- Finding hot spots if an IR-sensor-equipped scope

Polarization to ID materials
- Tracking micro-plastics in the ocean is a "thing" here
- Check out dryer lint for plastic vs. natural fibers hints at CSI applications
- Hundreds of applications in the McCrone guide. It's expensive and a bit frustrating (typos), but the most exhaustive source I've seen - while barely covering petrographic applications:

https://www.mccrone.com/product/essenti ... tbook-ed2/

Failure analysis
- I've used a scope to ID fatigue failures (produced a film ages ago on the topic). There are dozens of other applications for corrosion, fretting, etc.

Micronaut mentors. Folks I've equipped with scopes or encountered as part of my "Micronaut" program have had some interesting applications:

- "Moose" Henderson (famous wildlife photographer) got a PhD in moose poop. He examined it to determine their browsing habits and the prospects for sustainable health.
- A local church bought a Nikon scope (cheap) to send to an African hospital for malaria diagnosis.
- Two local people have been involved in queen bee insemination - one fairly famous for bringing bees back into the city.
- Plankton research is a big deal all around the Monterey Bay area.
- A ex-Google PhD is automating hydroponic agriculture.
- A Berkely PhD archaeology student is examining seeds from a thousand years back.
- Soil analysis has been an interest for a dozen folks. The idea is improving soil productivity.
- Agricultural pest management for both a Prof and two students
- Aquaculture to analyze fish health. Also two aquarium owners.
- Veterinarians.
- Beer-brewing in Brazil. A family traveling to the Bay Area wanted a good scope for their microbrewing business. Their son, one of the most amazing kids I've met, also left with a stereo microscope and a Micronaut t-shirt.
- Several teachers use them (camera and wide-screen equipped) in their classrooms
- We do micro-hunts with young primary-school kids and stereo microscopes. Sadly, it's only teachers at private schools who seem to have the time and freedom to engage in project-based learning. We have another idea to fix that.
- A local science-minded librarian, with a library next to a lagoon, runs a summer Lagoon Scientist program for kids.
- Graduation gift. Turns out the brainy and beautiful wife-to-be was about to finish her BS in microbiology at our local university. Equally dashing and bright husband-to-be (graduating in engineering) sealed the deal with an Olympus microscope as a graduation gift. I bet they'll have great lives.
- We have a marvelous "Open Studios" event for artists in our County each year. One of these artists is now doing micro-art of the sort sometimes seen here.
- Painting restoration (think wonderful old oil paintings) is another application for one user.
- One local scientist is using a specially-equipped (but still cheap) microscope to investigate the effect of dust on solar cell efficiency at locations around the world.
- Our area is awash in microscopes formerly used for silicon wafer quality control. Today's semiconductor features are too small for optical microscopy, but it's still a cool application.

Traveling abroad without a plane ticket and visiting alien worlds without a rocket ship

- OK, it's sort of a joke, but the same sort of jaw-dropping discovery one can get from traveling and exploration can be had by examining the world at micro-scale. Meteorites reveal the origins of elements at the early stages of the universe. I've learned (from Stephen, here) that agatized dinosaur bones provide a link to our prehistoric past. The same sort of drama one gets by spending tens of thousands to visit Africa's Serengeti is pretty much seen (metaphorically) in a mud puddle. The price of entry can be as little as $100 for a decent used microscope. A bit more improves the view. For adults and about the price of a First-class plane ticket, one can have a lifetime of views through something like a DIC microscope.

The general trend in both science and technology is that we're going from understanding things at "life-size" to better understanding how they work at micro-scale. Think cells, chromosomes, DNA, nano-particles, atmospheric contaminents, composite materials, micro-robots, micro-circuits, dendrites in new battery technologies, neural implants, and so on. My motto? The NEXT BIG THING in science and technology will probably be too small to see . . . without a microscope of some kind.

[PeteM]

To add, I'm a fan of the discoveries of many here. It's a great community (thanks, Oliver). Many of you are amazing micro photojournalists and artists. Add in everything from DonSchaeffer's weekly discoveries and musings to Bruce Taylor almost always knowing what we're looking at - - it's a great group of people.